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==Final Review==

==Final Review==

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====Google Code In 2014====

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====Geometry Viewer====

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Out of only 12 selected, we're very proud to announce that BRL-CAD is participating in the 2014 Google Code-In (GCI) program! Complementary to the highly successful Google Summer of Code program for university students, GCI is a contest to encourage pre-university students (age 13-17) to get involved with open source.This is the third consecutive year, BRLCAD is accepted as a mentoring organization.

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Geometry Viewer-

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Read more shall be redirected to -> http://brlcad.org/wiki/GCI2014

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====Geometry Viewer====

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What is a geometry viewer?

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Geometry Viewer-

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<b>What is a geometry viewer?</b>

It’s a service which allows users to manage all there geometry files. It can upload and view BRL-CAD geometry files in a different format so that others can edit it. But it’s currently under construction.

It’s a service which allows users to manage all there geometry files. It can upload and view BRL-CAD geometry files in a different format so that others can edit it. But it’s currently under construction.

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<b>It’s the equivalent to?</b>

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It’s the equivalent to?

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It’s like a Facebook for files where you can share other files with the public and then they can edit, change or fix the application to make it smother.

It’s like a Facebook for files where you can share other files with the public and then they can edit, change or fix the application to make it smother.

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<b>Why is it used?</b>

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Why is it used?

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It’s used to allow the user to become more organised and make the user interface easier to follow and understand.

It’s used to allow the user to become more organised and make the user interface easier to follow and understand.

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<b>What is needed to access this service?</b>

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What is needed to access this service?

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All you need on your computer with a Web GL supported browser, BRL-CAD, three.js and a Linux Apache MySQL PHP (LAMP).

All you need on your computer with a Web GL supported browser, BRL-CAD, three.js and a Linux Apache MySQL PHP (LAMP).

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<b>How it works?</b>

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How it works?

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Using BRL-CAD it changes the format to OBJ and loads it through the three.js all in all it converts then loads.

Using BRL-CAD it changes the format to OBJ and loads it through the three.js all in all it converts then loads.

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<b>Advantages</b>

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Advantages…

•Easier for the user to manage

•Easier for the user to manage

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Pl: Would you continue to contribute to BRL-CAD?

Pl: Would you continue to contribute to BRL-CAD?

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An: Of course ! I continued to contribute even after Google Summer of Code. Even if my contributions aren't as numerous as I would like because of my crowded academic schedule, I am trying t

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An: Of course ! I continued to contribute even after Google Summer of Code. Even if my contributions aren't as numerous as I would like because of my crowded academic schedule, I am trying to contribute for as much as possible. Contributing to BRL-CAD helps me improve knowledge as well as providing code that is actually useful for a large number of people.

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====Google Summer of Code: Jianbang Wu====

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by: John

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This article is based on some questions I asked Jianbang and in his profile page.

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Jianbang Wu (also known as Phoenix) participated in BRL-CAD development during Google Summer of Code 2012. His work was "to convert implicit Constructive Solid Geometry (CGS) primitives to boundary representations (BREPs)". He is a sophomore student in Peking University, China.

Jianbang chose to apply to BRL-CAD because "The mentors of BRL-CAD are really nice. :)" and because he loves computer graphics and math.

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He started working without any Computer Aided Design (CAD) software experience, which he learned during the summer.

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He worked on two projects:

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First, he followed Cliff's suggestion: "Implicit to NURBS conversion". This consisted in the conversion from implicit primitives to Non Uniform Rational Basis Spline (NURBS) primitives. In this project he also modified some unfinished conventions and added some new primitives.

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Since he finished this task before the mid-term evaluation, he decided to make a follow-up: "NURBS surface-surface intersection".

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Finally, he suggests future Google Summer of Code students to "Follow your interest, choose the project you like, and you will find Google Summer of Code really an excellent experience".

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You can check out some images related with his work here:

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http://brlcad.org/wiki/User:Phoenix/GSoc2012/Reports#Test_Results

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Related with his first work:

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* m35.g: component (left: implicit + csg, right: brep + csg)

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[[Image:M35.implicit.png]] [[Image:M35.brep.png]]

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Related with his second work:

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* The intersection curves (green) of a tgc (red) and an epa (blue). (Two segments)

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[[Image:Tgc epa.png]]

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John is a Google Code-In student living in Portugal. He's favourite language is Python although he's considering to widen his knowledge to C.

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==== Linux Release Packaging Process: A mission for Jordi Sayol ====

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By: John

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Jordi Sayol is the man behind the automation of the BRL-CAD Linux release packaging process, which he recently finished. His work continues the one made previously by Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo in .dbm packages.

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This article is based on some questions I asked him and on an interview made to Jordi by Gala, a Google Code-in student.

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Jordi has been working with BRL-CAD since January 2011,with his Linux experience (as advanced user) as his only companion. By that time, he started to collaborate on-line with other BRL-CAD team members.

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With such a massive project, which has millions of lines of code, he decided to take as his responsability the building of binary packages for Linux systems, since he's not a programmer.

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In both interviews, he explains quite accurately the process of making those. He has made two scripts that automate the whole work. What the scripts do is to handle all the pre-building proccess and then create the packages. "In fact the building job is done by debhelper to create deb packages, and the rpmbuild command to create rpm packages. The scripts tries to ensures that all dependencies needed by these commands are available, copy Linux specific files, create configuration files, etc. before building the packages".

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The scripts allow anyone to easily create their own deb/rpm packages as needed", since they "create deb/rpm packages for the host architecture where they are executed".

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This allows BRL-CAD to be distributed Debian-like and Fedora-like systems, which means a great variety of platforms where BRL-CAD will be able to work. Unfortunately, since Fedora and OpenSUSE don't share the same nomenclature, their rpm packages must be separate ones.

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The scripts can be found at the "sh" folder when you download the BRL-CAD sources.

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== Initial Drafts ==

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Since he is not a programmer (only an advanced Linux user), he won't develop other parts of the code, but I think all the BRL-CAD community can be grateful for what he has done.

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These are incomplete articles being worked on. Short 250 to 500-word articles (not counting tables, images, etc) are usually perfect.

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by John.

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John is a Google Code-In student living in Portugal. He's favourite language is Python although he's considering to widen his knowledge to C.

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Gala Taylor is a 2012 Google Code-In participant. Although she has used various Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) products over the years, and has contributed example files and tutorials to several projects, this is the first time she has actively participated in the development of FOSS code. Gala is currently in 9th grade, and her favorite computer language is Java.

BRL-CAD supports Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE, and other Linux distributions. Jordi Sayol recently finished automating the BRL-CAD Linux release packaging process, and he took some time out to chat with Gala Taylor about it - and also answer some question about what it's like to work on the BRL-CAD project.

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'''Gala Taylor (GT)''': How long have you been working on the BRL-CAD project?

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'''Jordi Sayol (JS)''': I've been involved with the BRL-CAD project since January 2011.

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'''GT''': How much education and experience were required to prepare you to contribute to the BRL-CAD project?

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'''JS''': My experience is just as an advanced Linux user.

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'''GT''': Do you need to physically meet with the other team members in order to contribute to the BRL-CAD project, or is it sufficient to work on-line?

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'''JS''': All of my collaboration is done on-line.

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'''GT''': The BRL-CAD project is a collection of over four hundred tools, utilities and applications, with over a million lines of source code. With such a massive and complex system, how do you decide what to work on? Is it necessary to understand all that code in order to contribute to the project?

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'''JS''': My responsibility is focused on building binary packages of BRL-CAD for Linux systems.

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'''GT''': Besides the release processing work which is described in the HACKING file, can you walk me through the process of actually transforming a developer’s checked-in source code into an .rpm or .deb that is ready to be downloaded and installed?

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'''JS''': It's quite simple. I have created two bash scripts that automate this process. The "sh/make_deb.sh" script creates a deb package installable on Debian-like systems. This currently includes Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and other distributions. The "sh/make_rpm.sh" script creates an rpm package for Fedora-like systems. This includes Fedora, Centos, Redhat, and some other distributions, or OpenSUSE, depending on the system where it is built. There are separate rpm packages for Fedora and OpenSUSE because they do not share the same nomenclature on their packages. Note also that both scripts create deb/rpm packages for the host architecture where they are executed, and that the results are currently only tested on x86_32 and x86_64 hosts.

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With these scripts, anyone can easily create their own deb/rpm packages as needed. This is especially useful if the user wants to install BRL-CAD on a very old system, maybe requiring special compilation for specific graphic cards drivers, etc.

Please visit the BRL-CAD project website for more information: http://brlcad.org

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'''Jordi Sayol''' is the maintainer of the BRL-CAD Linux release packaging process.

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'''Gala Taylor''' is a 2012 Google Code-In participant. Although she has used various Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) products over the years, and has contributed example files and tutorials to several projects, this is the first time she has actively participated in the development of FOSS code. Gala is currently in 9th grade, and her favorite computer language is Java.

Ronja (Reasonable Optical Near Joint Access) is an innovative piece of equipment that utilizes reliable optical data links to create a current communication range of 1.4 km and a speed of 10Mbps full duplex that can be used as a general purpose wireless link for virtually any networking project. This is a very important project for Twibright Labs, a small group of computer science graduate students operating out of Charles University in Prague in the Czech Republic. The group specializes in the usage of Free Software and User Controlled Technology Development.

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==== Mitchell Roberts: Chart of all Primitives ====

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BRL-CAD supports 37 geometric primitive solids. A database containing one example of each created and arranged into a chart. Each colored rectangle in the background corresponds to a different type of primitive (ex: the red group contains cones and cylinders). Primitives that fall under multiple categories, like the pipe (made of cylinders and toroids) are contained by multiple background rectangles. The ars and bot examples did not raytrace correctly, but are continuing to be worked on.

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The primary output for the Ronja project is a design. The lab does not intend to manufacture and sell the hardware that is being designed but wants to engage in open source development of the technology. The philosophy surrounding User Controlled Technology is the ideal that the end-user is provided with unrestricted access to the intellectual property surrounding the technology, including the tools that are being used to create it. One tool playing an integral part in the development of the Ronja designs is BRL-CAD. All of the models that Twibright labs use to display the different variants of their Ronja concept were created with the help of BRL-CAD. BRL-CAD has allowed the members of Twibright labs to create instructional diagrams so that the users and builders of their open source technology will be able to have the latest information with regard to the proper construction of a Ronja unit. The interactive geometry editor and ray-tracers in BRL-CAD are an integral part in the communication of design plans for Twibright labs and enables them to connect with the users, who are the driving force behind the User Controlled Technology ideal.

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The database can be used not only for a demonstration of BRL-CAD's primitives and their unique uses, but also for regression testing. Outputs from raytracing functions like rtWeight and rtArea can be compared to established normals to ensure changes to the source code do not cause unwanted changes to the way any primitives are raytraced. In the future, a tool to create the database automatically will hopefully be created and added to BRL-CAD's regression testing suite.

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== Initial Drafts ==

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These are incomplete articles being worked on. Short 250 to 500-word articles (not counting tables, images, etc) are usually perfect.

==== Physics Simulation System ====

==== Physics Simulation System ====

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BRL-CAD includes a Bullet-based rigid-body physics simulation system. The system takes advantage of BRL-CAD's ray tracing API to detect collisions between arbitrarily-shaped geometry, which are then passed to Bullet for physics calculations. The current system consists of a working demo allowing one object to be subjected to gravity and then collide with a fixed "ground" object.

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BRL-CAD includes a Bullet-based rigid-body physics simulation system. The system takes advantage of BRL-CAD's ray tracing API to detect collisions between arbitrarily-shaped geometry, which are then passed to Bullet for physics simulation.

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The majority of the work on the simulation system was done by GSoC students Abhijit Nandy and Oana Niculaescu.

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Recently, the physics system has received some attention as BRL-CAD works towards support for geometric constraints and joint systems. The goal is to expand the demo into a useful physics system capable of real-time simulation displayable in the Archer interface. In addition to various bug fixes and performance improvements, changes that will be merged soon include a flexible way for users to define simulation scenes using BRL-CAD's attribute system along with a simple combination-based scene description.

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Recently, the physics system has received some attention as BRL-CAD works towards support for geometric constraints and joint systems. Some changes that will be merged soon include a flexible way for users to define simulation scenes using BRL-CAD's attribute system along with combinations/matrices.

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A video of the improved simulation system can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzaKWzntnmc

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In-progress

==== Documentation Redux ====

==== Documentation Redux ====

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